Two sharp novellas that vividly complement each other.
Adult boys become adult men in Meyers' first book of two short novels.
At face value, Episcopalian Father Stackpole and Gary, an art history professor, have little in common. In The Man Who Owned New York, which takes place in the early 1900s, Stackpole works for All Angels church, a congregation that invests, builds and prospers—all thanks to owning a big chunk of New York City real estate. When a Kansas farmer calls the church’s land ownership fraudulent, Stackpole is forced to reconcile his own beliefs in the separation of church and bank with the practices of his congregation, while simultaneously vying for the favor of the claimant’s beautiful daughter. In Springtime in Siena, a study trip in Italy is revealed to be a sex-cation, with Gary taking his part in seducing students and townspeople. On this trip, Gary, in his late 20s, finds himself attracted to a woman for the first time, and he confronts his growing interest in the opposite gender. The two novellas are similar and different at the same time. Both are written as memoirs and focus on the transition from frantic adulthood into genuine maturity. Both men are involved in intense relationships for their respective times. Stackpole’s actions are cautiously prescribed per the rules of 1900s courting but include stealing kisses and secret dates. Gary’s boldness reflects a free-love era that seeped into the ’70s. Each story has a dramatically different writing style that plays into the contrast. Stackpole’s story is told with antiquated language, which can feel contrived at times, even as the author fixes Stackpole firmly in time by using flowing sentence structures common in bygone novels, where women are ladies and anger comes off as a devastating betrayal. On the other hand, Michael lives among brusquely described encounters and desires, where sex is a four-letter word and mechanical detail in the bedroom is a matter of course. By expertly separating these stories using substance and style, the author presents two distinct American men in two distinct eras—evidence that the tumultuous transition into adulthood transcends time.
Two sharp novellas that vividly complement each other.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1621418597
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.
Stockett heads to Mississippi for another historical novel about feisty women.
This time, perhaps recalling criticisms of cultural appropriation in The Help (2009), she sticks to feisty white women, with one exception. The setting is Oxford in 1933. For two miserable years, 11-year-old Meg has lived in “the Orphan,” a county asylum for parentless girls. Chairlady Garnett—a villain so one-note she’d twirl a mustache if she had one—makes it her mission to ostracize the older girls she deems unadoptable, stigmatizing them as offspring of the “feebleminded” mothers who abandoned them. She particularly has it in for smart, sassy Meg, who refuses to believe her mother’s mysterious disappearance was deliberate. Elsewhere in Oxford, Birdie Calhoun comes to visit her sister Frances, who married a wealthy banker, to ask for money on behalf of their mother and grandmother back in Footely. Frances isn’t thrilled by this reminder of her impoverished small-town origins. But she’s trying to climb up in Oxford society by volunteering at the Orphan, the asylum’s books need to be done before the state inspector shows up in a few weeks, and Birdie is a bookkeeper. Having neatly arranged to keep Birdie in town and draw these two storylines together, Stockett goes on to spin a compulsively readable yarn with enough plot for a half-dozen novels. Birdie and Meg become friends, Meg is adopted despite Garnett’s best efforts, Meg’s mother turns up at the Orphan demanding to know where her child is—and that’s less than a quarter of the way through a long, winding narrative that keeps piling on more dramatic developments until all loose ends are neatly, if hastily, wrapped up in the final pages. Stockett might be making a point about Southern women facing facts and standing up for themselves, but mostly this is just a satisfyingly twisty tale that should make a great miniseries.
Fans of Stockett’s bestselling debut will love this engaging follow-up.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781954118812
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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